This blog is about the book 'CONFIDENTIAL: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan.' The biography of a legendary Hollywood producer.
Cover image: Milchan embraces Arafat. A James Bond fan, Arafat thought he was embracing a film producer who had just introduced him to one of the original Bond's, Sean Connery. Arafat never realized he was schmoozing a top Israeli intelligence asset. - SCROLL DOWN:

Monday, March 31, 2014

Arnon Milchan and his good friend,
Australian Billionaire James Packer, at the
Opening of Milchan's Noah in NYC.
March 26th 2014.

UPDATE: Noah tops $300 million world wide. Arnon Milchan and Paramount's Noah stormed to the very top of worldwide box office receipts on opening weekend...raining on the cinematic competition... flooding theaters with moviegoers... sailing to success...and every other cheesy Noah metaphor that headline writers could compose. Noah's success will undoubtedly further fatten Mr. Milchan's wallet.

It's been a busy few weeks for Arnon Milchan. After his film 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture at the 2014 Academy Awards, he hosted a private party for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a cadre of A-list stars and senior Hollywood executives at his Malibu estate. A few weeks later, his production of Noah hit the big screen, shooting to the top of worldwide ticket sales, including in the United States. Hard to imagine what the encore will be.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Arnon Milchan's Darren Aronofsky extravaganza, Noah, is gaining momentum towards a strong opening on Friday, March 28. Many in the faith community have begun to rally around the message of the movie, despite some naysaying by conservative commentators. With less than one week until the release, a new promotional video has been released featuring Christian leaders who have nothing but high praise for the feature film. Paramount has asked Phil Cooke, a Christian who has publicly touted the film, to produce an explanatory video. This is the result:

The film has story, action and special effects qualities that should be appealing to a wide audience. However, if the Evangelical communities rally behind movie, and there is a good possibility that they will, Noah has all the makings of a real blockbuster. Stay tuned.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Director Terry Gilliam left the United States and renounced his US citizenship. Today he resides in the United Kingdom. Back in the 80's he had a massive falling out with Arnon Milchan following the production of Brazil. Almost 30 years later, Gilliam describes hisappreciation for Mr. Milchan:

Is there anyone in Hollywood he respects, I wonder? “I had a great time on Brazil with Arnon Milchan,” he says, “the world’s favourite Israeli spy.” He’s not joking: Milchan, the head of New Regency, whose hundreds of production credits include 12 Years a Slave, LA Confidential and Once Upon a Time in America, recently admitted in an interview that he’d been a spy in an earlier life. “He was actually in the arms business,” says Gilliam, cheerfully. “I don’t care where the money comes from. It’s all dirty money as far as I’m concerned!”
Certainly, we would agree that Mr. Milchan is "the world's favorite Israeli spy". He is also probably the best known and most fascinating Israeli spy in history, with a story worthy of a film franchise alas James Bond. Gilliam himself would have a role. While Gilliam and Milchan worked together, unbeknownst to Gilliam, Mr. Milchan was an extremely active agent during that period, on a number of covert fronts, including nuclear... and yes, as an "arms dealer", for a lack of a better term. Brazil itself was financed through such activities unbeknownst to Mr. Gilliam at the time... but certainly he had his suspicions.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

From left to right: Yair Netanyahu (son of the Sara and PM Netanyahu), Benjamin Netanyahu, actress Kate Hudson and Arnon Milchan. Above the shoulder of Yair Netanyahu on the left, looking at the camera from a distance is Gary Ginsberg, Executive Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications at Time Warner Inc.

Prime Minister Netanyahu with Keanu Reeves. To the right of Mr. Netanyahu in the distance is the United States ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro. An interesting addition to this selective gathering in California.

Keanu Reeves looks on as Kate Hudson and Mrs. Sara Netanyahu share a moment. Sometimes in pictures like these, the more interesting captures are the people in the background. For example, in this photo, multi-billionair and mega-casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is seen sitting in the background between Sara Netanyahu and Keanu Reeves. Mr. Adelson is currently ranked the 8th richest person in the world by Forbes. He is also the single largest contributor to the Republican Party.

In a testament to the bipartisan nature of the gathering, At the same table as Mr. Adelson is staunch partisan Democrat Barbara Streisand in conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Arnon Milchan is probably the only person in the world who could get Sheldon Adelson and Barbara Streisand in the same room together... and at the same table, without a fight braking out.

Barbara Streisand and Sheldon Adelson at the head table with Milchan and the Netanyahu's.

The Milchan seaside estate is the former home of legendary Director John Frankenheimer, who directed such classics as the Manchurian Candidate and Birdman of Alcatraz. It is also the house where Robert Kennedy spent his last night before his assassination by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel the next day.

Mr. Milchan's evening hosting Prime Minister Netanyau and the who's who of Hollywood included massive Secret Service and Israeli security arrangements that involved serious traffic deviations, rooftop snipers, an armored vehicle and off-shore patrol boats. Mr. Netanyahu and some guests stayed well into the night. According one source, until around 3:00 AM. Word has it that cigars and scotch were involved. The horrendous traffic situation on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway that resulted from the tough security measures surrounding this event, has caused a minor scandal in the upscale beach community. ﻿

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is partnering with Arnon Milchan's New Regency and Penguin Books to distribute copies of the acclaimed film, book, and study guide of 12 Years a Slave to America's public high schools.

The initiative, coordinated by Montel Williams, will start to distribute 12 Years a Slave nationwide in September 2014 in concert with the new school year.

NSBA President David A. Pickler stated that; "We believe that providing America's public high school students the opportunity to bear witness to such an unrelenting view of the evils of slavery is essential toward ensuring that this history is never forgotten and must never be repeated."

12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen stated that; "Since first reading 12 Years a Slave, it has been my dream that this book be taught in schools. I am immensely grateful to Montel Williams and the National School Boards Association for making this dream a reality and for sharing Solomon Northup's story with today's generation."

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Fresh off of his Academy Awards success with Best Picture 12 Years a Slave, Arnon Milchan will be hosting a low profile dinner-gathering of Hollywood's top talent and executives at his Malibu estate this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the guest of honor and the press is not invited. The exclusive, intimate gathering will consist of about 75 of Hollywood's a-list talent and studio executives. Among the invitees are director James Cameron, Barbara Streisand, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Affleck, Billy Crystal, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Jeremy Renner, James Caan, Kate Hudson, and all of the top studio executives.

The event is informal and will include a no-holds-bar discussion. Guests will be encouraged to asked any questions of the Prime Minister, no matter how controversial. Mr. Netanyahu will encourage those gathered to use Israel as a location for film and television productions, and will announce various financial incentives to attract Hollywood productions to Israel.

As revealed in the book Confidential, Arnon Milchan has over the years emerged as Israel's unofficial ambassador to Hollywood.

Monday, March 3, 2014

New Regency's 12 Years a Slave wins the 2014 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. Producer Arnon Milchan thus completes an amazing journey from his controversial role in South Africa of the 1970's to the very pinnacle of Hollywood success and recognition, with a film that depicts the evil of racial discrimination in the starkest possible form. Some will view all of this with cynicism, others will see a strong measure of redemption... either way, it is a hell of a story.

NBC News on 'Confidential': "A movie tycoon whose life story itself is a Hollywood movie"

Media Contact Information

July 17, 2011: The New York Times Introduces 'Confidential' to the World: GROUND BREAKING.

Click on image for the full article.

Fox News: "This is a Deadly Serious Book"

Fox News and the New York Times agree on something. Click on the image for the full backstory to the writing of the book 'Confidential' as published by FoxNews.com

Fox News on the 'Confidential' story: "This is a Movie in Itself"

Additional recommended reading:

For a wider understanding of Israel's intelligence services beyond the story of one facinating man, the authors of 'Confidential' also recommend Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman's gripping book 'Spies Against Armageddon'. Click on the image to go to their Amazon page.

CNN on the 'Confidential' story: "Hollywood Execs Will Be Fighting to Get This to The Big Screen"

The Daily Beast on Confidential - The Downfall of a Top Aerospace Scientist

GUT WRENCHING: Arnon and Richard Kelly Smyth go shopping for nuke materials. Smyth is caught...escapes... and 16 years of fear and exile ensue. Click on image for the story.

'Confidential' Co-author Doron Interviews for CBS News:

Author-Signed & Personalized Copies of Confidential Available Only Here:

Contact the Authors of 'Confidential' at 202-440-3050.

Tablet Magazine: The Shocking Milchan-South African Saga

He may have produced '12 Years a Slave' as a measure of redemption, but before that he played a key, controversial and highly secret role in Aparthide South Africa. Click on image for the exclusive details.

Sky News: Arnon Milchan wishes he hadn't denied it.

Milchan's Spymaster Blumberg: "For years I carried a cyanide capsule in case I was caught"

The only known photo of Arnon Milchan's Israeli Intelligence Handler and Trainer (between 1965-1981), LAKAM Chief and Master Spy Benjamin Blumberg. "Milchan was a man I could work with". Click Image for the full story.

Richard (AKA Dr. Jon Schiller) and Emily Smyth, The Owners of 'Milco', a LAKAM Front Company

The fugitive couple who escaped to 16 years of exile in Malaga, Spain, after shipping nuclear weapons triggers (Krytrons) to their long-time business partner/LAKAM handler, Arnon Milchan. Smyth, who was caught, extradited and convicted in the case, blames Arnon Milchan for destroying his life. Click on image for the story.

Krytron - a nuclear trigger

Like in any movie production "It's always the little things that cause the most trouble" - Arnon Milchan

Urenco Nuclear Centrifuge Blueprints...

In the dead of night, Arnon Milchan secured the designs for advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment... click on image for details:

A Fall From Grace - The Smyth mobile home

Once he was one of the most important and respected aerospace engineers in America with a waterfront mansion and a yacht. Today he lives in a little mobile home next to the railroad tracks in Lompoc, CA. Photo by Joseph Gelman. The Authors visited Mr. Smyth at his home as part of the investigative process.

Jonathan Pollard - Also a LAKAM Operative, and also handled by Rafi Eitan in 1985....

Arrested only months after Richard Kelly Smyth fled into exile in 1985 to live as a fugitive on the lam. The Smyth incident/disappearance undoubtedly played a negative role in Pollard's disproportionately harsh treatment... as US authorities were looking at that point to "send a message". Few have understood the connection between the Smyth and Pollard cases, and the time-frame. Pollard still rots in Jail, going on 29 years now.

Top Mossad operative and LAKAM Chief who was forced to resign following the Pollard Affair. Years earlier, Rafi Eitan had personally captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Eitan enjoys sculpting, and one of his sculptures sits in his friend Milchan's living room in his Malibu ocean-front mansion. Click Image for background on Rafi Eitan.

Arnon Milchan's $600,000,000 Art Collection

A less valuable sculpture by his friend Rafi Eitan sits on the living room table.

Arnon Milchan, Moshe Dayan and Leon Uris, the Author of Exodus.

It was Arnon Milchan who brokered the deal between Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon to create the Kadima Party

Arnon Milchan and French President Jacques Chirac

Standing alongside Milchan with blond short hair is Ase Thastrom, Milchan's former longtime lover who still lives in his Chateau in France, next door to the retired French President.

Peres, Milchan, Netanyahu

The Man in the Middle...in more ways than one

Arnon Milchan, Roman Polanski and Robert De Niro behind a 'Solidarity' sign in Poland

Milchan financed a production of 'Amadeus', the first Western cultural event held in Poland since before WWII. Polanski himself played the lead role. With the fall of Communisim in Poland, President Lech Walesa invited the trio for a Robert De Niro film festival that they organized.

Martin Scorsese directs Jerry Lewis in the 'King of Comedy' As Arnon Milchan looks on

Every Tabloid on the Planet Picks up on the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie 'Confidential' Scoop

The Authors didn't even consider it 'news' when Milchan described to them the behind-the-scenes story of the beginning of Angelina and Brad's relationship, and the break-up with Jennifer Aniston. Apperently the tabloids considered it huge news.

Arnon Milchan and Angelina Jolie

The Secrets of the 'Secret Agents' of Mr. and Mrs. Smith

The Authors of 'Confidential', Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman

Top-notch Investigative Journalism of the 'old school' kind. The stunning Investigation that brought a super-agent in from the cold.